Dr Rex, VST?

[MaliceX]

iZotope phatMATIK PRO does the job for rx2's. Cakewalk Dimension pro is said to be able to open that as well.

What about that ConcreteFX Slicer thing, if it's still available?

[knot0fvipers]

By the way Battery 3 does a great job playing Rex files in tempo w/ your host and will map the slices to individual notes/cells. The preview function, which runs at the same tempo as the host, is great as well.

yea i second battery 3. at first i wasnt so into the update but once you dig into it there is really no reason to use anything besides it for percussion, i cant even think of what else you could throw in a drum sampler at this point.

i do remember liking how you could hit the bottom and get the rex midi track, i wonder if thats not actually possible though with the VST standard?

[jeffb01]

+1 for stylus rmx

Sorry, but I have a need to give my opinion. Stylus RMX is a great rex player and my favorite all-time vst. There are some down sides which I'll get into, but the upsides are amazing.

First the downsides:
1. It's expensive - Around $300... And it doesn't do any slicing. So if you have non-rex loops you want to convert, add another $200 (though I really don't slice my own too much so I probably could of saved that $200).
2. Bringing the loops in (the first time) is kind of a pain. The loops have to be in folders of 60 or less and their names can be no longer than 31 characters. They are then converted to their proprietary format and have to pretty much remain in their same folder or be reimported.

The upside:
Once they have been imported, it is heaven. You can take a loop and change the volume or add different effects or filters to each individual slice (for example, make the snare drum in the loop louder and add reverb to the kick drum, while using a high pass filter for the hi hat). It has plenty of effects and a great filter all built in. You can mix and match up to 8 loops. It also comes with plenty (around 7 gigs) of loops and groove elements (example: a hi hat loop, a kick drum loop, etc). There are lots of expansion packs, plus a lot of libraries come in rex2 (I've added about 100 gigs thoughout the years). I've just scratched the surface of what it can do. I'm not familiar with dr rex, but I can't imagine a better rex player.

[bduffy]

That's a nice upside! Not sure if I can stand the downside, however... Although I get the impression that this is a plugin that I should've bought ages ago, regardless.

[stale bread]

By the way Battery 3 does a great job playing Rex files in tempo w/ your host and will map the slices to individual notes/cells. The preview function, which runs at the same tempo as the host, is great as well.

yea i second battery 3. at first i wasnt so into the update but once you dig into it there is really no reason to use anything besides it for percussion, i cant even think of what else you could throw in a drum sampler at this point.

i do remember liking how you could hit the bottom and get the rex midi track, i wonder if thats not actually possible though with the VST standard?

they sure could throw a sample slicer in that drumsampler

[loachm]

... I can't understand this need for a Dr. Rex VSTi. As far as i know it is a simple Rex-Player, no slicer. Apart from that no slicer I have come across up to now could beat Recycle, besides that it is the only program to crete REX2-Files. Most soundcard setups will allow to run Recycle and a sequencer, so there's no hassle running these programs at the same time. And there are a lot of programs, that can read the Recycle format - so what's the deal about it?

[Hellbilly]

I'm on the same boat as many here, still havent found my perfect Beatslicer/player. I've tried most of them but they all seem to lack something or the other or are just plain annoying to work with.

I might just end up buying Recycle and import to Kontakt or straight to Cubase.

[original flipper]

HI

I think the seamless integration of Dr.Rex in Reason is what makes it unique.

You simply click on the Dr.Rex interface button: 'send to track' and you are away.

So it is really the speed of the thing: drop dr.Rex in a rack, load a Rex file and send the loop to a track and your set-up.

Also the fact that if you own Recycle you can run that with Reason or even multiple instances of Reason.

I think the only other app that comes close is possibly AMG's 'One'; which again uses Rex loops.

I have found the competition to be a bit flaky in stability: Phat is OK, but I have had a few issues with the browser dissapearing! also the Concrete FX slicer has possibly the largest screen area for editing slices (but again in my experience) can be flaky.

LiveSlice is quite nice ... there are probably too many slicers around for anyone else to develop new app's?

I thought when Izotope took up Phatmatik that we would see something new, alas that doesn't seem to be the case.

Flipper.

[AKJ]

well, fl slicer integration in fl studio is also perfect and fl studio is both a vst host and can work as a vsti so that would make it imo a better choice than recycle and dr.rex/reason. if you need more control over the slicing the integration of beatcreator/beatquantiser with fl studio is seemsless and zgr format is nowadays also supported by kontakt and battery.

cheers, akj

[Hellbilly]

Funny how what is regarded as the best slicers are those who are integrated into hosts. Even though both Reason and FL can be used inside other hosts, it's just not the same as loading up a VST. But then again i havent tried FL as a VST inside Cubase yet. Is that even possible in the demo version?

[bduffy]

... I can't understand this need for a Dr. Rex VSTi. As far as i know it is a simple Rex-Player, no slicer. Apart from that no slicer I have come across up to now could beat Recycle, besides that it is the only program to crete REX2-Files. Most soundcard setups will allow to run Recycle and a sequencer, so there's no hassle running these programs at the same time. And there are a lot of programs, that can read the Recycle format - so what's the deal about it?

What are you talking about? You can't sync ReCycle to a host!

[loachm]

...but the question is can you slice loops with Dr. Rex?

Actually, I'd rather like you doing some thinking before showing me this ":nutter:", O.K.?

This discussion actually was about Dr. Rex, which is, as far as I know, a plain Rex-file player - it can't create Rex-files on its own. On the other hand there were a few beat-slicers mentioned here, which can't create Rex-files either (and as you know, since we were talking about that earlier, the Rex-file format has some advantages over other formats). So I was just asking what people would need a Dr. Rex VSTi when there are so many other Rex-file players out there. If I wanted to slice a loop, I'd use Recycle, drop the Rex-file into Kontakt and the midi-file into my sequencer. As far as I know, pretty much the same procedure like for Reason users, isn't it (I admit, I could be wrong)? So, if there's is nothing special about Dr. Rex apart from its integration into Reason (which would be a pretty pointless argument for a VSTi version) I can't see why anyone would need it as a VSTi.

On the other hand there are, as mentioned earlier, a lot of beatslicers also available - but they also can't create Rex-files. So my comment was simply implying why people don't use either Recycle in combination with a Rex-file player or a dedicated beat-slicer. Does this explanation make more sense?

I was simply asking what makes Dr. Rex so special in contrast to other rex-file players?

[dreaddd]

I was simply asking what makes Dr. Rex so special in contrast to other rex-file players?

in my use...the amount of time i can get my breaks working on it LIKE I WANT in comparison with other rex players..its a matter of seconds on that one for me, on other players i dont feel such comfortable
my 2 c at least...
Peace

[Lagrange]

Basement Arts REFLEX

Oh dam forgot about this one! I remember it was quite buggy (like 3 years ago).. Wonder how it runs now.. Love the GUI on this thing..

zgr format is nowadays also supported by kontakt and battery.

As long as the slices can be transfered back and forth intact, this seems like it would be a really good solution! Not having to slice and reslice and record and reslice and render and reslice and export and reslice would change the whole game IMO..

The problem with this whole rex rx2 format is the lack of support when doing simple things like transferring and saving. I've complained and whined about it before (even wrote external programs that automate conversions etc). Ever notice you can open rex format into many a sampler/player? But you cannot SAVE the format. I think beatcreator was the only app that could even export it, it was mono and I think RCY (1) format?? IMO this is what makes it such a pain to use at times.
Its like the proverbial fruit of knowledge..
Look but don't touch, Touch but don't taste, Taste but don't swallow.. All the while we are sitting here going..
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!:lol:

[jeffb01]

You can't export a rex2 file (rex 1 are mono) because rex2 is a proprietary format owned by propellerhead. They opened it for anyone to be able to import rex2 files but not export. That's how they get away with charging $200 for recycle which seems overpriced for a bare-bones slicer that hasn't had an upday in who-knows. That's the only way to export a rex2 file.